Chapter 229: Preparations For Post Election
By early autumn, the Syndicate had gained a better understanding of several local relationships, but the infiltration was far from complete. The agents had not uncovered the full extent of Mulligan’s operations, and they had no reliable basis for claiming they could predict his decisions.
Ricky considered that a reasonable beginning.
He wanted to understand the organization before deciding how to deal with it. An intelligence network that merely confirmed its founder’s assumptions was useless; one that distinguished evidence from speculation could prevent costly mistakes.
Larry Mulligan continued managing his underworld interests without knowing how extensively he was being studied. His political connections remained valuable, and his influence could not be dismissed simply because Ricky’s commercial network was expanding.
The two organizations were growing in different ways.
Larry relied on personal authority, local relationships, and the political machinery surrounding him. Ricky was building a system that combined business, communications, intelligence, and logistics.
The eventual contest would depend on more than the number of men either could command.
It would depend on which organization understood the city better—and which could adapt when circumstances changed.
The Independent Commerce and Industry Association had become a growing network of merchants, distributors, manufacturers, workshops, transport companies, and independent railway operators. Its members were beginning to benefit from shared commercial relationships, while discussions with banks were opening possibilities for more reliable access to credit.
The association had also begun collecting evidence of unfair business practices and encouraging participating factories to improve working conditions. These efforts remained in their early stages, but they gave the organization a purpose beyond resisting immediate competitors.
Williams Works had developed a modest but growing reputation in Port Chester. Callahan’s companies were securing regular commercial business, and the Department of Logistics and Supply was becoming more capable of coordinating the Syndicate’s needs without confusing them with the independent operations of its partner businesses.
Tom Murphy was building a financial intelligence picture of the industries Ricky wanted to enter. Some investments might soon become possible, while others would require more capital or better opportunities. The Syndicate had not suddenly become wealthy enough to purchase its way into every promising company, but its financial planning was becoming more deliberate.
The communications network had expanded, and the intelligence department was establishing a deeper presence within Mulligan’s underworld. Both developments increased the organization’s reach, although neither removed the risks associated with secrecy, unreliable information, or hostile attention.
There were still weaknesses.
The Legal Affairs and Government Relations department remained vacant. Science and Technology required more of Ricky’s time than he wanted to give it. The association’s political connections needed careful handling, and its financial plans depended on avoiding reckless borrowing or excessive commitments.
The infiltration of Mulligan’s network remained incomplete. Tammany Hall still possessed neighborhood relationships, political influence, and an established system of patronage. Neither the association’s commercial growth nor the Syndicate’s expanding intelligence operations had made the machine irrelevant.
Ricky did not mistake progress for victory.
He reviewed the reports with Evelyn, Phil, James, and John De George, discussing what had worked, where the organization remained exposed, and which projects required more time before producing meaningful results. The months ahead would demand careful decisions about investment, political relationships, and the pace of expansion.
Outside the estate, the presidential election was approaching.
Woodrow Wilson had secured the Democratic nomination after a bitter convention contest, and his campaign was competing against Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive candidacy, William Howard Taft’s Republican campaign, and Eugene Debs’s Socialist campaign. The division among the major political forces had made the election more complicated than a simple contest between two parties.
Tammany Hall was preparing for the consequences. Murphy would need to preserve his local influence regardless of the national result, while Mitchell and the reformers looked for opportunities to advance their agenda.
Marek’s association intended to remain commercially independent, and Ricky had no intention of allowing the Syndicate’s future to rest on a single election.
He reviewed the final summary of the month’s reports. The organization had expanded, but the real achievement was not the number of new businesses or the length of its telegraph connections. It was the growing ability of different parts of the network to reinforce one another.
Merchants generated demand. Manufacturers supplied goods. Transport companies moved them. Banks provided potential access to capital. Communications linked the departments, and intelligence helped Ricky understand the environment in which all of them operated.
The system was still incomplete, but it was beginning to function as a system.
Ricky closed the report and issued his instructions: "Keep building. Don’t rush the investments, don’t let the association become a political faction, and don’t mistake an incomplete intelligence report for a conclusion."
Evelyn recorded them. Phil returned to the financial summaries, while James prepared the departmental correspondence.
The work continued.
In a few days, Americans would vote for the next president. The outcome could change political alliances, influence legislation, and create new opportunities for businesses willing to prepare.
But the Syndicate had not spent the spring and summer waiting for a politician to deliver its future.
It had spent them building the means to shape that future for itself.
November was approaching, and with it came the first major test of the network Ricky had spent six months constructing.
Meanwhile, in the White Plains, Cards and Glasses had become one of the busiest pubs in White Plains.
Its success had little to do with expensive furnishings or an unusually extensive selection of drinks. The place was comfortable, the prices were reasonable, the food was dependable, and Frank Murphy had a remarkable talent for making strangers feel as though they had been regular customers for years.
Railway workers sat beside shopkeepers. Carpenters drank with deliverymen, while merchants occasionally occupied the same tables as men who would never have received an invitation to their homes. Arguments over baseball, politics, business, and women rose and fell throughout the evening, but Frank usually managed to keep the atmosphere entertaining rather than hostile.
Usually.
When drunk, Frank could be loud, reckless, and occasionally violent. His fondness for women was notorious, and his reputation for persuading them into bed had become a favorite subject of local gossip. Men who liked him sometimes shook their heads at his behavior; men who disliked him found it difficult to deny that he was charming.
Yet the pub’s growing popularity could not be explained by personality alone.
Over the preceding months, Frank had become increasingly involved in helping struggling families around White Plains. As a branch director in the Department of Member Welfare and Public Relief, he had begun coordinating assistance through the Williams Trading Company and the Independent Commerce and Industry Association. The arrangements were practical rather than grand: locating temporary employment, helping families obtain essential supplies, connecting small businesses with customers, and arranging assistance when illness, injury, or a sudden loss of income left a household in trouble.
Frank also spent some of his own money on private charity. Sometimes he paid for groceries. Sometimes he helped a family cover an urgent expense. On other occasions, he introduced an unemployed man to a business owner who needed another pair of hands.
He rarely made speeches about any of it. He would complain about the inconvenience, crack a joke, and move on to the next problem.
That suited him. Frank did not want to be regarded as a saint, and he certainly did not intend to become a solemn public figure who spent his days shaking hands and delivering rehearsed promises.
Unfortunately for his reputation as an ordinary pub owner, people had begun talking about him in precisely those terms.
Some called him a good man. Others said he was becoming too powerful for someone who owned only a pub and had no official political position. A few claimed that an unofficial gang had formed around him.
The rumors reached Ricky through several independent reports.
At first, Ricky assumed the supposed gang was an exaggeration. White Plains had its share of petty criminals, neighborhood quarrels, and men who mistook intimidation for authority. A popular businessman who helped local families could easily attract a circle of loyal friends, and outsiders might mistake that loyalty for an organized criminal outfit.
Still, Ricky wanted to know what was actually happening.
He visited Cards and Glasses one afternoon, accompanied by a small security detail that remained outside. Frank was behind the counter, arguing cheerfully with a supplier about the price of a delivery. When he noticed Ricky, he finished the discussion, sent the supplier away with a promise to settle the matter the next morning, and led Ricky to a quieter table.
Ricky wasted little time on pleasantries. He asked Frank whether he had formed a gang.
Frank stared at him for a moment, then laughed. "A gang? What kind of gang? Half the men in this town owe me money. If I had a gang, I would have collected it by now."
Ricky remained unconvinced. He explained the reports: unfamiliar men being watched, bullies being driven out of certain streets, and a handful of troublemakers suffering rather unpleasant beatings after threatening local families.
Frank’s amusement diminished, though it did not disappear. He admitted that people had begun passing information to him. Shopkeepers reported strangers asking suspicious questions. Residents warned one another about men who had been threatening families or demanding money from vulnerable businesses. Workers sometimes informed Frank when an outsider had been harassing them.
There was no formal membership, no roster, no initiation, and no single group of men who answered to him. The information moved through friends, relatives, shopkeepers, workers, and neighborhood acquaintances. Someone heard a rumor, another person checked it, and the news eventually reached Frank if it concerned a serious threat.
Sometimes, after a family had been bullied or blackmailed, a few local men took matters into their own hands. The resulting confrontations were not always gentle.
Frank shrugged. "I didn’t organize a gang. People just started telling me things. They trust me, and they don’t like seeing their neighbors pushed around. If some bastard comes into town thinking he can threaten a widow or shake down a shopkeeper, he might discover that the locals aren’t as helpless as he thought."
Ricky asked whether Frank had encouraged the beatings.
Frank’s expression turned more thoughtful. He did not pretend that everyone involved was innocent or that every rumor was reliable. He also admitted that he had no intention of dismantling the entire information network simply because a few locals had used it to settle scores.
Ricky understood the distinction, but he made his concern clear. A decentralized neighborhood network could provide valuable information and discourage intimidation. It could also become a mob if accusations were accepted without question. A man who had been wrongly accused might find himself beaten before anyone bothered to establish the truth.
Frank listened, his usual grin fading. Ricky was not asking him to abandon the people who trusted him. He was asking him to prevent that trust from becoming an excuse for uncontrolled violence.
They agreed that Frank would continue receiving information but would encourage his contacts to distinguish what they had witnessed from what they had merely heard. Serious threats would be passed through trusted channels, while immediate danger would be handled as an immediate safety problem rather than an excuse for revenge.
The network would remain informal. It would not become a private army, and Frank would not use it to terrorize competitors or settle personal grudges.
When the discussion ended, Ricky found himself more interested in Frank than he had been before.
The man had no sophisticated intelligence training. He could not analyze political factions with John De George’s precision or organize agents like John Caldwell. Yet he had built something valuable almost by accident: a network of people who spoke to one another because they believed he cared about their lives.
That kind of trust could not be manufactured by issuing orders.
It had to be earned.